16 WESTERN PALLET
New WPA Officers, Board Members Announced, Membership Contest Winners
WPA announced Scott Gutierrez as new president, Ralph Rupert of Millwood, Inc. as vice president, Steve Mazza of S&B Pallet as treasurer, and Beatrice Vasquez of Oxnard Pallet as immediate past president.
New board members include Justin Hegsted of Challenger Pallet, Carly Taylor of Oregon Pallet, and Edgar Montes of G.O. Pallets. Incoming associate board members include Glenn Meeks of Woodview Media and Greg Wine of Pallet Machinery Group.
WPA’s membership drive is an annual tradition, with members competing to recruit the most new members. New members are vital to maintain and grow WPA membership. This year’s membership contest winner once again was Norm Normile of NW Norm, with a second place tie going to Beatrice Vasquez and Jay Van Loon of J&B Pallet.
Nature’s Packaging
“Three organizations, WPA, NWPCA and CWPCA, came together to create a platform that identified our key environmental challenges, funded important research, and developed tools that could be used to answer pallet user questions regarding the environmental footprint of wood pallets,” explained Bob Wenner, Pallet Foundation chair. One of it’s key initiatives is Nature’s Packaging.
“The WPA Auction and the NWPCA Auction are the primary funding sources,” he said. “Thank you for your support, members of the Western Pallet Association! We couldn’t do what we’ve done, without you.”
The goals of Nature’s Packaging are to increase wooden packaging usage, educate on the environmental benefits of wood packaging over alternative materials, and promote wood packaging, globally. “Nature’s Packaging allows us to talk about more than just the basics of the supply chain,” he said. “It allows us to talk to the future of it. It moves our industry beyond back-and-forth rhetoric, to 3rd party verified and certified claims that position our industry ahead of competing materials.’
Wenner encouraged attendees to use the Nature’s Packaging resources, as well as to like and share its social media posts. “Link your websites and promotional materials to Nature's Packaging,” he said. “And most importantly, provide feedback to us on the tough questions….the challenging issues your customers are raising, so we can continue to fund the research to answer the questions, and build on our industry messaging.”
Cont'd from Page 13